Showing posts with label conference. Show all posts
Showing posts with label conference. Show all posts

Monday, November 6, 2023

Algorithms, Approximation, and Learning in Market and Mechanism Design at SLMath Berkeley this week--Monday

 

Nov
06
2023
Monday
 08:45 am 09:00 am
Welcome
 09:00 am 09:45 am
Kidney Exchange: Within and Across Borders
Alvin Roth, Stanford University
 09:45 am 10:30 am
Stable Matching as Transportation
Federico Echenique, University of California, Berkeley
 10:30 am 11:00 am
Break
 11:00 am 11:45 am
Couples can be Tractable: New Algorithms and Hardness Results for the Hospitals / Residents Problem with Couples
David Manlove, University of Glasgow
 11:45 am 12:30 pm
Advancing Stability in Matching Markets: Multi-Modal Preferences and Beyond
Jiehua Chen, Technische Universität Wien
 12:30 pm 02:30 pm
Poster Sessions and Lunch
 02:30 pm 03:15 pm
Old and New Results on Matching, Assignment, and Selection Problems
Jay Sethuraman, Columbia University
 03:15 pm 03:45 pm
Afternoon Tea
 03:45 pm 05:00 pm
Matching Markets without Money: Closing Panel

Thursday, October 26, 2023

Online and Matching-Based Market Design, Simons Institute, Berkeley. Oct. 26 – , Oct. 27,

 To celebrate the book of the same name, the Simons Institute is hosting a conference today and tomorrow on

Online and Matching-Based Market Design, Simons Institute, Berkeley.  Calvin Lab Auditorium, Thursday, Oct. 26 – Friday, Oct. 27, 2023


"All talks can also be viewed live on our YouTube channel, and recordings of each talk will also be available following each presentation unless otherwise noted. YouTube Live Stream: https://www.youtube.com/user/SimonsInstitute/live."

Thursday, Oct 26:

###
Update: the links in the final program now also include videos of most of the talks.

Saturday, October 14, 2023

Ariel Pakes celebrated at the Nemmers Prize conference

 Ariel Pakes could certainly also win the prize for being loved by his students and colleagues: 

CONFERENCE IN HONOR OF ARIEL PAKES






Thursday, October 5, 2023

Transition to residency conference: Oct 5-7

I'll be a panelist at the  the NRMP conference Transition to Residency,  in Boston, Oct 5-7

"The National Resident Matching Program® (NRMP®) will convene its stakeholder conference in Boston this year. The meeting is intended to provide a forum for robust conversation among members of the undergraduate and graduate medical education communities about issues relevant to the transition to residency."

Here's the list of plenary speakers.


Friday, Oct 6, 8:30 – 9:45 AM Plenary I

The Future of the Transition to Residency: Assessing the Impact of Proposed Change

Panelists:

John Combes, MD

Alvin Roth, PhD

Charles (Tom) Thomas, MA, MPhil

Sunday, September 24, 2023

Nobel Symposium on Social Networks Lund, Sweden, August, 2023

A Nobel Symposium on Social Networks was held in Lund last month.The papers don't appear to be online, but it ended with a round table discussion:
"You can join in online when the symposium ends with an open “round table discussion” with a panel of leading scientists on August 24 at 14:00. The discussion will be introduced by Tommy Andersson, Professor in Economics at LUSEM and Member of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

The panelists are Prof. Matthew Jackson, Prof. Albert-Laszlo Barbasi, Prof. Kathleen M. Carley, Prof. Damon Centola, Prof. Vittoria Colizza, and Prof. David Lazer."

Stanford was well represented. Aside from my colleague Matt Jackson, Mark Granovetter joined the symposium itself by Zoom (which I guess is a weak link).


Round table discussion: Nobel Symposium on the Future of Network Analysis
 

Nobel watchers, take note.

Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Mathematics and Computer Science of Market and Mechanism Design: SLMath introductory workshop (videos)

Last week I gave the opening talk of the week long  Introductory Workshop at SLMath, on Mathematics and Computer Science of Market and Mechanism Design.  Some of the video lectures are now online here (consisting mostly of slides and voice).

My talk introduces the general themes of market design by recounting the history and challenges facing the market for new doctors from 1900 through this year.

Berkeley's Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath), formerly known as the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) has a commanding view of the SF Bay.







Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Organ transplantation in China: in transition--and controversy about paying funeral costs

 I recently spoke at the CAST transplant conference in Hong Kong (see picture), and the underlying theme of my talk, and of many talks there, was the transition of transplantation in China, and what its future might hold.

Jie-Fu HUANG is the other speaker on Zoom (to my right and your left), and Haibo Wang is on the far left on stage.

Here are two of my opening slides (using 2021 data from the Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation)


On the left, you see that, today, China and India already perform more kidney transplants than any country in the world except the U.S.  On the right, you see that, by virtue of their large populations, they accomplish this despite their quite low rates of transplants per million population, compared to the U.S. and countries in Europe.  So if China and India can raise their transplant rates to rates comparable to the U.S. and Europe, most of the transplants in the world will be done in Asia, and many many additional lives will be saved.

Note that China mostly transplants kidneys from deceased donors, while India mostly transplants kidneys from living donors. So they have different paths (and plenty of untapped potential) for raising donation and transplantation rates.  And their paths to their current positions have also been very different.

Here is a recent account reflecting China's recent progress:

Chen, Zhitao, Han, Ming, Dong, Yuqi, Zeng, Ping, Liao, Yuan, Wang, Tielong, et al. (2023). First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China: 5-year Experience at a High-volume Donor and Recipient Liver Transplant Center. Transplantation, 107, 1855-1859. https://doi.org/10.1097/TP.0000000000004561

" In 1972, our center performed the first living donor kidney transplantation in China. Since then, kidney and liver transplant programs have evolved. By the beginning of the 21st century, organ transplantation had advanced, and clinical liver transplants have been performed successfully at the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University.1

"Organ shortage has been a prominent feature at our institution as it has been around the world. Starting in the early 1980s, many organs had been procured from inmates on death rows. This unethical approach has been rightfully criticized by the worldwide community. As a consequence, the source of organs for transplants has solely been replaced by voluntary donations from Chinese citizens since January 1, 2015.

...

"Moreover, policies and methods for humanitarian aid to donor families were established. Those policies follow WHO guidelines while recognizing specific aspects of the Chinese culture. The State Ministry of Health and the Red Cross Society of China launched a pilot project on organ donation after the death of citizens in 2010 and established the China Organ Donation Committee. The principle of this pilot project was to learn from the experiences and standards in developed countries while recognizing national conditions and the social reality in China aiming to build an ethical and effective scientific organ donation and transplantation system.2

**********

In the same issue of Transplantation as the above article is this invited commentary by Ascher and Delmonico, both former Presidents of The Transplanation Society (of which Transplantation is the official journal). They largely approve of the effort China has made in transplants, but they have a big reservation.

Ascher, Nancy, MD, PhD & Delmonico, Francis. (2023). Organ Donation and Transplantation in China. Transplantation, 107, 1880-1882. https://doi.org/10.1097/TP.0000000000004562

"The date of 2015 is important for the review of any organ transplantation report from China because of the public proclamation in the media in 2015 prohibiting the use of organs from executed prisoners. Clinical transplantation articles antecedent to 2015 have been consistently rejected by Transplantation and the international community because the source of the transplanted organs was most often an incarcerated prisoner. China took a major step to condemn this practice publicly in 2015. However, because there is no law or regulation that prohibits this unethical practice, there has been ongoing concern that this practice may be continuing. Notwithstanding such a reality, there have been regulations that are citable and may be reflective of the changing experience of organ donation and transplantation in China that are consistent with the World Health Organization (WHO) Guiding Principles.

...

"WHAT CONTINUES TO BE OBJECTIONABLE

"The Chinese Red Cross is prominent in the organ donation process and a center of support for deceased donor families designated by the Red Cross as humanitarian aid to donor families.7 However, such humanitarian aid, although not limited to China, should not be misinterpreted to be an effort because it includes payment to elicit consent for donation. The Sun Yat-sen publication suggests that the Red Cross policies follow WHO guidelines while recognizing specific aspects of Chinese culture without elaboration as to the cultural details. A payment to donor families for funeral expenses or other monetary incentives should be recognized as a form of commercialization and would not comply with WHO guidelines."

**********

Some background may help put this objection in perspective. Doctors Delmonico and Ascher are prominent signatories of a declaration that payments to families of organ donors are crimes against humanity (as are payments to living donors, and both are declared comparable to transplanting organs from executed prisoners, and to be organ trafficking. See my 2017 post.)

So, they raise the question of whether saving many lives by increasing deceased donation in China will be justified if it involves paying funeral expenses of donors.  

My guess is that Chinese health authorities, thinking of the many lives to be saved, will think that this act of generosity to families of deceased donors will indeed be justified, taking account of (see above) "national conditions and the social reality in China aiming to build an ethical and effective scientific organ donation and transplantation system." 

Many people in China and elsewhere might even think that little if any justification is needed for generosity, particularly generosity to families of deceased donors, that is to families who are themselves generous.

Saturday, September 16, 2023

NBER Market Design Working Group Meeting, Fall 2023, Cambridge MA

 Market Design Working Group Meeting, Fall 2023

Friday, October 27

8:30 am
9:00 am
9:45 am
10:30 am
10:45 am
11:30 am
12:15 pm
1:30 pm
2:15 pm
3:00 pm
3:45 pm
4:15 pm
5:00 pm
5:45 pm
6:30 pm

Saturday, October 28

8:30 am
9:00 am
9:45 am
10:30 am
11:00 am
11:45 am
12:30 pm
1:30 pm
2:15 pm
3:00 pm